Knox a lying she-devil says the man she falsely branded killer

Knox is currently awaiting the outcome of an appeal against her conviction in Italy, but a lawyer for Patrick Lumumba told the hearing she was not to be believed.

Early in the investigation into the killing, Knox accused Mr Lumumba of killing Miss Kercher, who shared an apartment with Knox in Perugia. Although he was briefly jailed, he was later cleared of her killing.

Mr Lumumba’s lawyer, Carlo Pacelli, told the appeals court that Knox had a double soul: The clean-faced woman sitting before judges, and the she-devil who loves “wild sex”.

Knox maintains she was pressured into making the accusations against Mr Lumumba by police in Italy.

Mr Lumumba is a civil plaintiff in the case, and in Italy civil portions of cases are heard at the same time as the criminal matter.

His lawyer asked the court: “Who is Amanda Knox? Is she the mild-looking, fresh-faced person you see here, or the one devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol that emerges from the court documents?”

He maintained that a double soul co-existed in the 24-year-old American. “Both a (saint) and a demonic, satanic, diabolical she-devil, which leads her toward borderline behaviour.

“This was the Amanda of November 1, 2007,” the night of the murder.

He insists that, at the time of the crime, “she was an explosive mix of drugs, sex and alcohol”.

Both her father Curt and step-father Chris Mellas were in court to hear assessment of Knox’s personality.

Miss Kercher was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox. The American student at one point told investigators she was home during the killing and had to cover her ears to drown out Miss Kercher’s screams while Mr Lumumba was murdering her, according to court documents.

Knox maintains police pressure led her to accuse Mr Lumumba, a Congolese national who owned a bar in Perugia where the American had occasionally worked.

While Mr Lumumba is a civil plaintiff in the case, he is also seeking damages from Knox in a separate procedure because her claim led him to be unjustly detained.

Knox’s co-defendant in the appeals trial is her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. He, too, denies wrongdoing.

Miss Kercher was found murdered at the apartment, semi-clothed and her throat cut.

An element of the appeal is DNA evidence from a knife, which defence lawyers now say is discredited.

It has been suggested there were tensions between the two women as a result of Knox’s behaviour at the apartment they shared, failing to keep it clean and returning home with strangers.

A verdict in their appeals case had originally been expected last week, but is not expected to be announced until early October. It is expected a lawyer representing the Kercher family will give evidence of the effect on her relatives.

While Knox and Sollecito hope to be freed after serving four years in jail, prosecutors have asked the court to increase the sentences of both to life in prison, which is the stiffest sentence available under Italian law.

At present, Knox is serving 26 years, with Sollecito sentenced to 25 years on the same charges.

Also convicted in separate proceedings was Rudy Hermann Guede from Ivory Coast. Italy’s highest criminal court has upheld Guede’s conviction and confirmed his 16-year prison sentence.